That Was The Week That Was

 Tuesday 22 October

An early morning walk to Rolston and a lovely sunrise to accompany my footsteps. The area is wonderful at the moment - full of autumn colour.

Sunrise

Spear thistle covered in cobwebs

 Thursday 24 October

 This morning's walk took me north along the sea front and back the same way then along Stream Dyke. Not much to see I'm afraid.

Great Black-backed Gull

The highlight of the morning was a flock of Greenfinch by Stream Dyke, 14 in total.

Greenfinch feeding on Rosa rugosa

Half of the Greenfinch flock

 Friday 25 October

I walked along the south side footpath to the hide this morning. Plenty of birds about in the early morning sunlight but not many came within camera distance.

 In Wassand Wood I found a species of fungi I'd not seen before and as it looked quite different to others, I checked its id. I decided upon Rhodotus palmatus (Wrinkled Peach), but I wasn't really convinced so I posted it on the Yorkshire Naturalists Union page and asked for either confirmation or an alternate id. Confirmation came back which really pleased me as it was not only a new species for me, but also it is not common. It is found on elms which of course are disappearing far too quickly, but there are currently plenty of them in Wassand wood.

Wrinkled Peach (rhodotus palmatus)

Cormorants from the hide

Saturday 26 October

Back to the Mere again this morning and one more very pleasant morning in our local beauty spot. A single Lapwing flew over me heading north.

Lapwing showing the wide wings that enable its aerobatic displays

There aren't many mammals on show these days (apart from rabbits and squirrels but I mostly discount them) so a Roebuck was good to watch as it browsed the field edge.

Roebuck

The best place for passerines at the moment along the south side is the set aside field and its surrounding hedgerows. A large flock of about 100 Linnets and some 30 Goldfinches is building well and hopefully numbers will swell to a couple of hundred birds soon.

Also in the hedgerows are Yellowhammers, Reed Buntings and Chaffinches. No Brambling yet for me.

Yellowhammer

In the large reedbed at Heslop's there are nearly always Bearded Tits to be seen and/or heard. This morning was no exception with about 10 of them calling and moving through the reeds. They didn't come near the footpath so I made do with heavily cropped shots from about 150 yards.

Distant Bearded Tits

On the water there were nine Whooper Swans, including a single young swan.

Whooper Swans with a Cormorant spectator

Greater Scaup visit frequently through winter and two were found by Jon, luckily for me they were pretty close in so I didn't need the scope to get them.

Greater Scaup

While watching the Scaup, 24 more Whooper Swans appeared from the north and a few landed close by the other nine Whoopers. The young ones among them didn't make elegant approaches to touch down 🤣🤣

A young Whooper Swan looking ungainly

Sunday 27 October

As I enjoyed the previous two days at the Mere I made it a thrid consecutive visit to the Mere this morning. It was colder than the other days at 7 degrees C but it soon warmed up once the sun got a little higher in the sky.

I caught a fleeting glimpse of a dragonfly as I went through one of the gates but not enough to have a guess at id I'm afraid. The sun also brought out plenty of hoverflies with Tapered Dronefly the most numerous.

Sysphus sp. hoverfly

Tapered Dronefly

Common Green Bottle Fly (Lucilia sericata)

In the largest hawthorn by the set aside and Heslop's I found six (six!) Tree Sparrows. They have been hard to find around the Mere this year and although there are plently of them nearby and in Hornsea as a whole, they are very scarce at the Mere.

A Mere Tree Sparrow

The local Kestrel was up and hunting over first field. Great to see but I do wish it would turn and face me sometimes. Yes, I know the wind direction controls the direction it faces while hovering, that doesn't stop me wanting it to do an about face 😀

A Wind Hover (old English name for Kestrel)